Old Wylex board convert to RCBO?

Not for me!
It is an old Wylex consumer unit, remember the type with a wooden frame
base, dark brown plastic cover and fuse wire carriers, which pushed in
to insulated coloured slotted bases. The fuse carriers at some point
were replaced with a more modern flip switch MCB, rather than the Wylex
push- button MCB's.
He is now considering installing some RCD's to replace the MCB's is
there one which fits the old Wylex please?

I don't suppose for a moment any part of the CU is wood, just the
"cable management" it sits on.
I do know of a wooden fuse box in a business premises in Liverpool.
May or may not be still there, the fuse box I mean, (but who knows!)

I know of a fuse box that is wood with the interior lined with
asbestos sheets which when it was installed decades ago required the
installer to drill holes through those for the cable entries.
G.Harman

Would this have been asbestos cement though, I'm familiar with that as
most will be as thousands of roofs , gutters, etc are still in use
made from it.
This was thinner sheets much the same as was found on Ironing boards
for the Iron rest at one time.
To be honest I have never bothered to find out how such sheets were
made.
G.Harman

I seems to remember a Wylex DB, which was entirely encased in brown
plastic, which had knock outs. It used the same front part of the case
as the wood framed version, but had a rear plastic case, making it
fully enclosed.

I would not expect so... RCBOs would need connection to both L & N of
the supply and the circuit (and possibly earth as well). The layout of
the old wylex boards is just not suited to that.
Since the cost of the exercise will hinge more on the cost of the RCBOs
that the CU enclosure itself, he may as well replace the enclosure as well.

I knew about the need for the neutral to pass through, but hadn't given
it much thought.

Thanks, that was a conclusion I was expecting, I just wanted to confirm
it as the only way forward for him. He had no RCD's and regularly uses
mowers and strimmers, so I have given him a 13amp plug in RCD as a
temporary fix. He just needs to remember to use it.

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